Louis POV

Now I understood why her best friend was a Snow Leopard, she was completely, and utterly, terrifying in the most beautiful of ways.

Energy crackled between us, before I let my guard drop and held my arms open for her. It was a painful, nearly minute long wait before she finally dropped the scowl that was creasing her smooth forehead and sighed defeated.

“Not now Louis, I’ll see you later.” She dismissed me, not even the slightest bit of compassion shone through her words.

I dropped my arms to my sides, shaking my head in what probably looked like a painfully forced smile. “Yeah, see you later.” I turned and walked out of our small sanctuary before she even had a chance to explain herself.

I would never understand women, especially not the incredibly beautiful ones. Maybe that was a stereotype, but I really didn’t give a damn.

I trudged back up the hill we’d came from, stepping out into the open concrete of the zoo and running nearly head-on into a group of teenage girls.

Shit, shit, shit.

“L-Lou-Louis?“

The blindingly blonde girl stuttered and paused, allowing me time to wait for what was surely coming after.

“Louis Tomlinson!” She screamed directly after, and I nodded my head. That reaction was so common nowadays that Harry and I had the timings between those two sentences down to a science.

“Would you, could we-“ She stuttered again, her other three friends just continuing to stare at me with open mouths.

“I don’t have a pen love.” I answered her finally, pushing my amused smirk into a friendly smile as I finally put this girl out of her misery.

I’m sure I looked like nothing less than an asshole as I stood there and watched her struggle for words, but lately I’d been quite a bit more self-involved than usual.

“No, that’s fine! I have a pen!” She scrambled, barking a few orders at her friends before turning back to me with a giddy expression.

Twenty minutes later I had signed nearly fifty; arms, shoes, wallets and iPhones from the herd of girls that gathered around my stationary position.

That was the most pictures I had, had taken since I arrived at the zoo, and I was getting increasingly worried for my vision after one particularly strong flash –it’s broad daylight, so this girl was an idiot- left the blue dots swimming in my eyesight for nearly ten minutes.

I was still blindly walking up the path to the food court when a polished loafer stepped into my line of sight, taking me off guard as I lifted my head upwards to meet the man’s eyes.

I raised my eyebrows in annoyance as I was met with the stone cold expression of what I would assume to be a man of my age. However, with the loafers, corduroys and button-up shirt with the official Zoo stamp, I was severely thrown off; he looked like an asshole, a middle-aged asshole.

“David Leeds.” the man held out his hand, his voice coming out much deeper than I would have expected on such a scrawny guy.

“Louis Tomlinson.” I kept my arms crossed over my chest, not even trying to hide my gaze as I looked over ‘professor nerdy.’

“As I would have guessed, now here at Marcotta Zoo we have a str-“ the man began to lecture me, his plaid bowtie staring me straight in the face as I was lost in the thoughts of whether or not he was taller than Harry.

“-nothing is over looked and although you’ve helped sales I do ask that you keep to your own portion of the Zoo.”

“Yeah I don’t really give a shit?” I answered David, a smug smirk inhibiting my features as I chuckled at the seriousness of such a trivial thing. They were teenage girls screaming over a picture, the worst they could do was start another rumor

“I’m afraid language like th-“ David began his lecture again, his dark hair gelled over the side of his head like the pretentious dick he was.

“You don’t fucking do that Cindy!” The scream of an incredibly familiar blonde broke David away from his speech, his eyes landing on the flying curls of Lydia at the same time mine did.

She was entering the food court from the opposite entrance, a frightening expression clouding her face as she created a riot.

“Looks like she can use that language,” I patted David on the chest, completely ignoring his pursuit behind me as I picked up the pace over to Lydia.

“I did it because you need to be a part of it Lydia.” I soon recognized Cindy, her calm demeanor remaining solid as she responded to the wild girl.

“I don’t want to be a part of it and you can’t do that!” Lydia got even closer to Cindy, cornering the older woman into a wall as I tried to make sense of it all.

“You have to accept it!” Cindy finally broke and started yelling at her intern, her hands flailing in the air as both women came at each other head on.

I briefly thanked god that the lunch rush of people were nowhere in sight, just a few stray zoo-goers sat on the picnic table or attempted to leave quickly before things escalated even further.

“That’s my name! My fucking privacy that I get none of! Just because my parents-“ Lydia snapped, angry tears could be heard breaking through her voice as Cindy’s eyes grew wide in fear.

“You have to-“

“I’m not going to!” Lydia screamed, the agony echoing in her words as I finally got close enough to step between the pair.

David’s hand reached out to grab my shoulder as I closed the space between myself and Lydia, my arms going to wrap around her small frame.

Lydia’s POV

“Fuck off mate,” Louis snapped at David and I watched David’s eyes grow wide when Louis shoved him off.

“Hey, I’ll take care of her!” David shouted at Louis, the sound reverberating off the enclosed gates of the food court.

“I said fuck off!” Louis let his arms loosen around me for just a second, turning his head to spit the words out at David. Both men wore murderous expressions, but Louis took the cake. Not even daring to test the look on Louis face, David remained glued to the ground several feet away from us.

I wanted to scream at Louis, to push him off kicking and screaming. I wanted to pull Cindy’s hair out and curl up in a ball to cry the rest of the pain out, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t do anything.

I remained completely still against Louis as he slowly walked me backwards. The steady pace of his heart calmed me down, the anger falling out of my body with every tear that threatened to soak into his white t-shirt.

“Do you want to sit down?” Louis accent came out thicker than usual, his voice low and husky as just the tip of his lips brushed past my ear to whisper.

I shivered involuntarily, understanding how this must look to everyone else. His body pressed right up against mine, his muscular and tattooed arms holding me so tight I was afraid I’d burst at the seams. 

            “Ok, we’re going to sit down.” Louis head was still tucked into my shoulder, allowing his words to fall from his lips and land directly into my ear.

            “You don’t have to carry me,” I finally got some words out, realizing suddenly that somehow my feet had been lifted up and placed atop his as he continued to walk me backwards.

            “Too late for that,” Louis chuckled. The laughter shaking through his chest as he leaned down and tucked his hands under my knees, gently pulling me up even farther and setting me down on the top edge of the picnic table.

            “Hey, look at me.” He coaxed, the warmth of his entire body pressed against mine leaving abruptly. I kept my face pressed into his chest, trying desperately to memorize the distinct scent of forest and expensive cologne that radiated off of him in every direction.

            “You smell like a man,” I commented absentmindedly, not noticing how my fingers had bunched around the fabric of his t-shirt, pulling him closer to me with every heartbeat.

            “I would hope so,” he chuckled again, slowly coming to stand in between my legs. “Lydia, look at me.” Louis repeated, his fingers trailing down my cheeks before they met under my chin and slowly tilted my head up, his eyes locking with mine as he enforced his words.

            “What?” I mumbled, desperately trying to look anywhere but his painfully blue eyes.

“Your heart is pounding.” He seemed to be speaking only to himself, which was a good thing because I still couldn’t get over the way his lips formed over his accent.

“I cannot stand when people chew with their mouth open.” Louis offered up after a few minutes of silence.

“What?”

“Your turn.” A small smile graced his sculpted features.

“My turn?” I repeated, watching him nod as I tried to force my brain to catch up. “I hate when people feel the need to have a place for everything?” I asked it as though it was a question, unable to help my giggles when a huge smile lit up his face.

“My worst fear is that one day I’ll come home and there will be a fan sitting on my couch.”

“Sometimes I let food rot on purpose because it pisses off my roommate.”

“I don’t believe in making my bed.

“I’m terrified of owls.”

“I’d rather starve than eat seafood.”

“If I don’t sleep with socks I can’t sleep at all.” I finished my confession completely serious. He stopped for a minute, his eyes widening a bit before he burst into laughter.

“Ar- are you serious?” His voice came out in pants, the crinkles from a man with a generous sense of humor re-appearing around his eyes.

“Of course I’m serious! My feet get cold!” I argued, crossing my arms over my chest as he bit his lip, his small frame shaking every once in awhile with the weight of holding back his laughter.

“It’s your cold heart.” He shrugged nonchalantly, keeping the completely straight facial expression until I cracked first. Bursting into a fit of giggles, I smacked his chest playfully, forcing the smile to reappear on his lips.

“You’re smiling now aren’t you, love?” Louis asked me right after we’d stopped laughing, his hands still cupped around my face from where he’d caught my tears and wiped them aside.

“What do you want?” I hid behind my dry sense of humor, praying to god he wouldn’t ask me what was soon to follow.

“Could you possibly tell me what happened?” Louis’ smile softened, the kindness in his eyes conveying how much he knew I didn’t want to answer the question.

I paused for a moment, a moment suspended in time as I sorted through my countless thoughts, many of which had occurred in the last ten minutes.

David was still standing a mere twenty feet away from us, joined now by Cindy and the babysitters as they watched us carefully. A curious expression lined Cindy’s face, and an angry one was hardly concealed on David’s plain features. In any other circumstance I would have noticed enough to care, but I was so caught up in my own web that even after deciphering their looks I couldn’t bring myself to even want to understand.

The gates to the food court had somehow been closed in the time I’d been with Louis, blocking me off from the rest of the world as time seemed to collapse and expand.

Was this how Louis felt all the time?

Trapped in his own space, his own mind?

“Can I ask you something?” I pitched the question to Louis without even realizing it had slipped my lips.

An interesting expression crossed through his eyes, turning them from the brilliant shade they had just previously been, to the same cloudy blue I had stumbled upon only a week ago.

“Of course.” He answered simply, dropping the funny man show for only a minute and allowing me to see the real Louis – the one behind the snarky comments and loud profanities.

“Why are you here?” I stated the words plainly, my toes balanced at the edge of a dangerous line I didn’t dare break.

He paused for a minute, his eyebrows knitting together under his mop of hair as if he were solving a particularly difficult math equation. Hundreds of outcomes passed through my thoughts in this small capsule of time, forever suspended as I waited for the dreadful answer.

“Markus, Victor, could you cm’ere for a moment?” He finally spoke up, his voice bouncing back to its usual high-pitched tone.

The two bulky men came walking over quickly, both of their expressions void of emotion as they stopped in front of Louis to stare between the two of us.

“Am I allowed guests at the flat?” Louis inquired and my brain went blank, all I could hear was the crackling of what used to be my perfectly functioning nerve-endings as his question played on repeat through my body.

“Am I allowed guests at the flat?”

Never once did I notice how Louis seemed to stop breathing in those infinite seconds in time.

A/N

Wow you guys are crazy awesome! I was so happy to be able to respond to all those comments! And holy crap you got the votes! You are a stellar crew!

So this chapter is heavily important for the coming chapters, it may seem as though this story is moving fast to many, but I'm trying to make it as realistic as a fanfiction can be... so dialogue between the two and other pro/antagonists is key.

All of these characters are key as well as a few coming up, so just bear with me while I establish their relationship :)

Also, I do not have an actress or model or anything for Lydia because I imagined her very distinctly in my mind, so if you need an actress or such go ahead and pick whomever you wish, I hope you have  a clear picture of her now though. Lydia is a very distinct looking person to me.

Anyways, enough with the chatting!

I love you all!

Next Update: Saturday, March 1st.

22 votes for an early update! (It's a busy week for me so you're gonna have to work hard for an early update :P)

-Hannah